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(2024.1) What does the Prorate flag do?

Owned by Brian Dixon
Last updated: Mar 28, 2024 by Brian Dixon
4 min read

Using the Prorate flag

The Prorate flag only applies to Recurring Charges.  The default behavior of Charges is to bill the full Charge for the entire month. This behavior can be overridden with the Prorate flag. The Prorate flag bills for a given partial date range based on the Start Date of the Charge. Proration splits the Charge into daily increments based on the Bill cycle. The period between the Start Date of the Charge and the next Bill will be used to calculate a percentage that will be applied to the Amount of the Charge to get the calculated amount for the Prorated Charge.

Admins can force ALL Charges to be Prorated with the Configuration Option BILL_MRC_CHANGE_FORCE_PRORATE .

Note: When using this Configuration Option, the Prorate flag on forms and Prorate column on grids will both be hidden. The Prorate flag will still be set, but the values are hidden to prevent confusion.

Prorate Examples

Assume the following basic information for each of the following scenarios:

  • The last Bill was run for the Month of April, from April 1st through April 30th.

  • The Charge amount is $90.00.

  • The next Bill will run for the Month of May, from May 1st through May 31st.

Without the Prorate flag

  1. A User adds a Charge on May 15th, without the Prorate flag set. In June the Bill runs for the full amount of the Charge, $90.00.

  2. A User adds a Charge on May 8th, without the Prorate flag set. In June the Bill runs for the full amount of the Charge, $90.00.

With the Prorate flag

  1. A User adds a Charge with a Start Date of May 16th, with the Prorate flag set. In June the Bill runs for the prorated amount of the Charge, $45.00.

    • The calculation for this is 15 days divided by 30 days for a total bill period of .5 or 50 percent.

    • $90.00 multiplied by the .5 percent for $45.00 total. (15/30)*$90.00.

  2. A User adds a Charge with a Start Date of May 8th, with the Prorate flag set. In June the Bill runs for the prorated amount of the Charge, $66.77.

    • The calculation for this is 23 days divided by 31 days for a total bill period of .74 percent.

    • $90.00 multiplied by .74 percent for $66.77 total. (23/31)*$90.00.

    • Note: The actual percent is much longer (23/31 = .7419... ). This was rounded down in this example for clarity's sake only.

      1.  In practice, the full decimal of this example is multiplied by the Charge amount ($90.00) and the result is then rounded based on the Configuration Option BILLING_ROUND_METHOD .

Service Catalogs

The Prorate flag on the Service Catalog sets the default behavior of any Default Charges added to the Service Catalog. If the Prorate flag is set on the Service Catalog, whenever a Service is created in the Service Desk Action , the Charge associated the Service will be set to Prorate. This can be verified by opening the Charge on the Action's Charges tab and checking the flag on the Charge.

  • This is the default behavior only, and any User can always override the default behavior by toggling the flag on any given Charge.

Equipment Catalogs

The Prorate flag on the Equipment Catalog sets the default behavior of any Default Charges added to the Equipment Catalog. If the Prorate flag is set on the Equipment Catalog, whenever an Equipment record is added to a Service Desk item, the Charge associated the Equipment will be set to Prorate. This can be verified by opening the Charge on the Action's Charges tab and checking the flag on the Charge.

  • This is the default behavior only, and any User can always override the default behavior by toggling the flag on any given Charge.

Charges

Both of the previous examples are the default behavior of the Services and Equipment Catalogs. However, the Prorate flag on individual Charges can be set for any specific Charge. This is done on the 'Add New Charge' form for Services, Equipment, Service Desk items, and GLA Catalogs.

As previously noted, this flag will be set by default to whatever the value for it is in a Service Catalog Or Equipment Catalog. In the generated Charge, the Prorate flag can be set or overridden based on the needs for that specific Charge on this form. For some Charge types, like the Service Desk Charge, or the GLA Catalog Charge, this is the only place the Prorate flag can be set.

Prorate Flag and Effective Date